Would going to riften asap from the start of a newgame cause any problems later? I plan to do that and join the thieves guild to just get the starter gear they give you not the nightingale, if I just do the first few quests to get the starter gear will that lock the nightingale armor/weapons or will those only lock when i get to those quest?

You'll get worse enchantments on the armour, that's it.

Yeah you get a bigger buff at higher levels. I did just that with my fouth character, a Dunmer, I created to play a possibly evil character. My first, I usually just play myself.

Anyway he is doing well although leveled quite a bit now.

I went to Riverwood, then Whiterun did the first Dragon then left the main quest completely at about level 5 to do other things. Went to Riften and started my wicked career.

Level 18 and have not visited the Greybeards yet.

Just hold off on going too far into the Thieves guild main questline, till level 32, you should be fine then.

Leveled equipment, that is all.

I actually just joined the Thieves Guild right after slaying that first dragon for the Jarl of Whiterun. I don't think I'll go too far into the questline just yet, but it's nice to have that armor set early on.

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The thieves guild armor isnt leveled I thought

The Thieves Guild armour is not levelled. Regardless of which level you begin, the inital hood for example, will always be 10% better prices, the same goes for the rest of the armour. staying with the hood, the upgrade will always be 15% better prices and the guild master set will always have the same stats too.

However, the Nightingale gear and weapons are affected by level.

So does anyone know if the nightingale armor locks at your level by just doing the first few missions? or will it lock when I get the quest to get it?

When you enter the cell(cave) with karliah,not before.It wouldnt make much sense otherwise.

It depends on how long you take to do the quest. I went to Riften after doing the trip to see the Greybeards and was about level 12 when I got there. I did the Thieves Guild quest and I stretched it out between level 12-36. If you complete the quest after level 32 your armor is max level. I know mine is maxed after completing it at 36. The bow reaches max level after 46, but the level right before is 36-45. I kind of got lucky because I wasn't intentionally stretching it out, but that's my playstyle. I don't latch on to a quest chain and fast travel around to complete it -- more like start the chain; go to a new area; do some quests there; continue the chain,

NIGHTINGALE ARMOR IS SCALED FROM WHEN YOU RECEIVE IT, NOT WHEN YOU START IT

I went thieves guild early too.. But only to get the Meadery up and running, so theres allways 1000g for tradeing
so close to my House at Whiterun, where I live next to my Blacksmith place of work. Plus I change into thieves guild gear as it looks so cool just for thieving and creeping about and I allways get changed when entering the guilds hide-out.(2nd time round new char) Sean Bean look alike....lol ( cant get enough of this Game..)best game ever. xbox 360

for strict roleplaying purposes only i am wondering HOW everyone is finding out about where the thieves guild is in-game??

what makes you go to riften? i have yet to hear anyone point me in that direction in about 75 hours of gameplay. did i just miss it? or not talk to the right people around whiterun and riverwood?

i can't come up with a way to get my character to riften or the guild early in the game.

I followed a kajhit caravan there the first time I went, they kept telling me about how they made a ton of money, but I didnt see anyone buying anything in whiterun, so I decided to see if there was some secret to their success. I decided to go into town, and there they were....

You were sneaking into Skyrim to with a message for the Thieves Guild in Riften when you were captured by the Imperials and sentenced to be beheaded...

sorry, my fault. i wasn't clear. i can come up with a backstory to get there.

i'm talking about in-game. how do i find out where the thieves guild is?? nobody says a thing. and, for rping purposes i'd like to get their right away and not just wait until someone in the game sends me there or gives me the info.

how did you guys know riften was the home of the thieves guild?

For roleplaying my Khajiit was coming to Skyrim with that thief from Rorikstead that's in the wagon at the start of the game. They were heading to join the thieves' guild in Riften when they crossed the border and were ambushed along with the stormcloaks. With that in mind, it's easy to make an excuse to get him to Riften. Really, it would probably be one of the first places he wanted to go.

It would be a lot harder to RP this if you didn't have the knowledge of where the thieves' guild was, but my thief was not my first playthrough.

Not sure if I am getting what you are asking, but plenty of people in Riften complain about the Thieves Guild when ever you talk to them.

sixgun-

that's what i'm saying. in earlier games we were quickly told in the game how to reach the thieves guild.
i have yet to find out where the guild is while playing. nobody says a thing. i don't want to "cheat" my way there with a made up story.
i want the game to lead me there.

edit- mmz: ya, this is purely for rping. early game i have no reason to go to riften. i have no knowledge that the guild is there. where do i get that info? without just arbitrarily going to riften, which, my early character wouldn't do, how did you find out that the thieves guild was in riften?

Yeah, I just read your reply to MMZ.

A bit of a main quest spoiler

Yes, this too.

You run into it during the main quest, guess the guy who contact you also do it outside it.
You also get some quests in a dungeon west of Riften early. If this fails do an roundtrip with carriages.

It's one of the first things I do as a new character: Walk to Riften, and talk to Brynjolf. But like others have pointed out, don't do too much of the TG quest line until you level up some. Remember, things like rewards & loot are levelled. My current character is level 34, and only now is he starting to go deep iinto the quest line (He's just about to hook up with Mercer to look for Karliah... eek, that came out bad. )

Question about these leveled rewards. (I'm assuming it'd work the same way for College of Winterhold.) If I delete the item and then add it again via console at higher levels, will it still be locked to my old level or will it update? :3